Meeting Minutes
UNDG Working Group on Communications and Advocacy
12 June 2015; 09:30 a.m.; DC-1, 1 UN Plaza, New York
Summary of action points

A thank you note will be sent to Alvaro Rodriguez (Resident Coordinator,
Tanzania) and Gary Lewis (Resident Coordinator, Iran) for their participation in
the Working Group meeting.

A joint communication from the co-chairs will be sent to UNCTs emphasizing the
importance of the Communicating as One guidance, informing them of the
activities of the Working Group, and that communication is everyone’s business

The TOR for the Joint Task Team under results area 3 will be revised after being
presented during the next meeting of the Sustainable Development Working
Group on 1 July.

A TOR for results area 4 should be circulated, and data from results area 1+2 to
be shared with those working on results area 4.

Action items based on our discussions with the Resident Coordinators from Iran
and Tanzania will be formulated and presented at the next WG meeting, to be
held in October.
Attendance
Organization
Participants
Co-Chair
Yoka Brandt
DPI
Janos Tisovszky
UN Women
Nanette Braun
UNCTAD
Johannes Laepple
UNICEF
Paloma Escudero
UNICEF
Madeline Eisner
UN Millennium Campaign
Mitchel Toomey
UN Millennium Campaign
Kallayaphorn Jasmine Jaruphand
www.undg.org
1
UNEP
Alejandro Laguna
WFP
Domenica Sabella
Post-2015 Hub
Geoffrey So
UNIDO
Ralf Bredel
Resident Coordinator
Gary Lewis (Resident Coordinator, Iran)
Resident Coordinator
Alvaro Rodriguez (Resident Coordinator, Tanzania)
Secretariat
DOCO
Gina Lucarelli
DOCO
Peter Serenyi
I) Background:

On 12 June, the fourth meeting of the UNDG Communications and Advocacy
Working Group took place. The previous meeting on 17 April had noted progress
under the annual work plan for results area 1+2, while it was determined that
work under results areas 3+4 needed to be clarified.
II) Purpose of the meeting:

The purpose of the 12 June WG meeting was to report on progress under the
work plan, which consists of four results areas. The first two results areas focus
on the Communicating as One (CaO) Guidance & how is it being applied. The
second two results areas focus on engaging around the sustainable development
agenda and UNDAFs.

Resident Coordinators from Iran and Tanzania were asked to give short
presentations to help the Working Group better see how Communicating As One
is being implemented at the country level.
III) Opening: Review of the Communications and Advocacy Working Group work
plan progress and updates

Co-Chair (Yoka Brandt) opened by noting that she and co-chair Yannick
Glemarec were not able to fully coordinate their schedules. As a consequence,
Yannick was not able to attend the meeting. She also noted that this is the first
meeting since the Communicating as One training in Nairobi, and the leadership
www.undg.org
2
seminars in New York and Geneva, where Communicating as One featured
prominently.

Based on the suggestion by UN Habitat during the previous meeting to reach out
to UNCTs, two RCs were invited to share their experiences on Communicating
as One: Gary Lewis, Resident Coordinator in Iran, and Alvaro Rodriguez,
Resident Coordinator in Tanzania.
IV) Presentation by RCs on implementing Communicating as One at the country level

Gary Lewis (Resident Coordinator, Iran) noted that partners such as government,
media, donors, civil society, and even UN staff are sometimes not aware of what
other agencies are working on. Thus, the UNCT in Iran has invested heavily in
speaker notes, factsheets, even having no fewer than 70 stories a month on its
website, which is sent to a database with 1,500 subscribers.

Gary Lewis asked for HQ support in the form of top-line speaker notes on
matters such as SDGs, agencies messaging, and thematic areas. Currently,
country teams develop their own talking points when the need arises, but having
a unified, coherent set of notes that could be used by multiple agencies would
help to provide a more consistent UN message.

Alvaro Rodriguez (Resident Coordinator, Tanzania) noted that communications
and advocacy work in the Tanzania UNCT require a much stronger push.
International UN Days present an excellent opportunity to reach out to partners
and the community, as they can be linked to SDGs and mandates, and provide a
call for action. In particular, SDGs provide the opportunity to bring together the
Country Team. These activities not only involve communications, but also
advocacy and partnerships around the SDG priority areas of the government.

He said that mainstreaming human rights into the development agenda provides
a comparative advantage for the UN and has untapped potential. Doing so
requires agencies to link with youth, women, vulnerable groups, which provide
great opportunities for communications. The UN Web TV series “Voices from the
Field” is one such example.

Alvaro Rodriguez said that there is a need for agencies to remember that
communications and advocacy support the entire work of agencies. Hence, it is
important to develop, prioritize, and fund the communications and advocacy
function. All staff should regard themselves as ambassadors for the UN.

He noted the need to adapt cutting-edge communications techniques to the local
context. He also highlighted the need for resources for communications as most
donors prefer to fund specific programmes rather than broad functions such as
communications. One model which could work is the UNDP Innovation Facility to
pool and provide resources for communications work.
www.undg.org
3

What is needed is enhanced communications, he said, which requires greater
latitude on issues and a higher budget proportion of donor funds to be allocated
to communications. This will build on a UNCG that is more empowered.

In response to a question by UNICEF (Madeline Eisner) on how communications
can support a values-based approach, Alvaro highlighted the importance of
normative work and the need to strengthen the link between development and
human rights.

In response to a question by DPI (Janos Tisovszky) on how the additional push
and extra time spent by RCs on communications translates into impact on
programmatic work, Gary Lewis commented that communications is part of
‘normal’ work for him and allows him to leverage the UN brand name and values
to carry out development work. He found that communications is a natural blend
of the programmatic plan, and is simply a matter of articulating the work they do.
V) Progress update on results 1&2: Communicating as One Guidance roll-out and
Knowledge Repository

Madeline Eisner (UNICEF) reported good progress on the result areas, with
surveys (quantitative and qualitative) completed but analysis still
required. Baseline data indicate that the rollout of the CaO guidelines has been
uneven. More needs to be done to familiarize country teams with guidance and
provide them with best practices. Data point to the need for recognition in the
EPAS system for work devoted to CaO, the importance of linkage with the
programme me results groups, as well as the active role that an RC or head of
agency should play. Surveys should be shared with the WG.

Nairobi training presented great opportunity for peer-to-peer training, with over 25
participants from countries mainly from Africa, but also Haiti, Macedonia, Sri
Lanka and the Great Lakes. UNICEF and DOCO presented on Communicating
as One guidelines. Led by HQ, a major webinar series, currently under
development, will also form part of the support/guidance strategy. The first
webinar will be held in July.

She also reported that DOCO, DPI and UNICEF participated in breakout
sessions on Communicating as One as part of the inter-agency Leadership
Seminar series, held in NY and Geneva, with participants from over 70 duty
stations.

A survey on advocacy efforts conducted by OHCHR found that joint advocacy
tends to cluster around programmatic issues.

Co-Chair (Yoko Brandt) proposed that, given the uneven roll out of the guidance,
a communication be sent to RCs, reinforcing the Communicating as One
www.undg.org
4
guidance and informing country teams that the Working Group exists and has a
number of key deliverables relevant for UNCTs. The UN @ 70 Day should also
be mentioned as a communications opportunity.

By the end of this year, we should produce a Q&A and four-pager with best
practices, relevant examples, and guidance.
VI) Progress update on results 3: Communicating and advocating around the SDGs

Mitchell Toomey (Millennium Campaign) reported that a TOR for the Joint Task
Team had been created, adding that communicating the Sustainable
Development Goals will be a case study for Communicating as One. National
contexts demand more nuanced approaches and thus global messaging needs
to be tailored. It was mentioned that the timing of the global SDG materials is
now critical. It was recommended that among the pilots should be countries that
need more help. On July 1 the Sustainable Development Working Group will be
informed about progress with the Joint Task Team. Revised TOR and work plan
forthcoming based on the comments.
VII) Progress update on results 4: UNDAF Review and Co-Design
Nanette Braun (UN Women) reported that a ToR is in progress and a consultant
identified who can take the work forward. Between five and seven UNDAFs will
be examined as part of an effort to identify opportunities for communications. The
data and analysis coming out of results area 1+2 should be shared with those
working on results area 4. It was agreed that by the next meeting the ToR be
finalized for the next meeting, work commenced, and progress discussed.
VIII) Any other business

The Co-Chair debriefed the meeting on coordination among the various UNDG
Working Groups. It was noted that a co-conveners meeting had been held on 11
June in which the issue of international transparency standards had been raised,
as it is currently one of the action items for the Communications and Advocacy
Working Group under the UNDG Plan of Action for Headquarters. However,
since the issue is a cross-cutting one, it had been proposed at the co-conveners
meeting that the Business Operations Working group would take this forward
with inputs from our Working Group.

It was also emphasized that there should be better sharing of information across
Working Groups, as well as a more coordinated approach to the provision of
UNDG guidance to UN country teams.

The Co-Chair also noted that the UNDG will be organizing a side event at the GA
in September, under the auspice of the Sustainable Development Group. The
event will focus on the UN development system’s plans to support
implementation of the Post-2015 development agenda. It should happen on
either the 25th or 26th. For more information, please talk to DOCO.
www.undg.org
5
IX) Next steps and action items

Thank you note will be sent to Alvaro Rodriguez and Gary Lewis for their
participation in the Working Group meeting.

A joint communication from the co-chairs should be sent to UNCTs emphasizing
the importance of the Communicating as One guidance, informing them of the
activities of the Working Group, and that communications is everyone’s business.

The TOR for the Joint Task Team under results area 3 will be revised after being
presented at the next meeting of the Sustainable Development Working Group
on 1 July.

The data and analysis coming out of results area 1+2 should be shared with
those working on results area 4.

Action items should be formulated based on the discussion with the RCs.
www.undg.org
6